Juilliard-trained, two-time Emmy-winning actor Bradley Whitford, 59, is best known for playing White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman on the NBC drama The West Wing. But he’s knocked it out of the park in recent film and TV hits too—The Post, Get Out, Destroyer and The Handmaid’s Tale—and stars in National Geographic Channel’s new docudrama series Valley of the Boom (January 13), which explores the tech boom of Silicon Valley in the 1990s. The Madison, Wisconsin, native plays James L. Barksdale, the former president and CEO of Netscape. Engaged to Transparent star Amy Landecker, Whitford has three children—Frances Genevieve, 21; George Edward, 19; and Mary Louisa, 16—with first wife, actress Jane Kaczmarek.

What makes a show about the ’90s tech boom relevant today?

We’re all dealing with technology. I keep thinking about the fact that George Orwell was afraid people were going to burn books. Aldous Huxley correctly was worried that people would not read books anymore and it wouldn’t matter. Technology is a massive reorganization of how we deal with each other and how we communicate, and how we carry on our civil discourse—or uncivil discourse.

Do you think the innovations of the ’90s tech boom—namely, the internet as we know it—improved our lives?

I think our ways of communicating have exploded. Are we as a culture communicating better? No! [Laughs] Is its capacity to connect going to be undercut by its incredible ability to divide? A kid in India can get a degree from Stanford—is that good? Yes. Is the fact that we are distracted constantly, overwhelmed with information to the point where it becomes meaningless—is that good? No. There are good things and bad things, and we have to learn how to manage it. Right now, we are at the mercy of technology. We don’t know what hit us. We’re living in the information age instead of the wisdom age, which is too bad.

I had a grandmother who would lament telephones because nobody wrote letters anymore, and automobiles because they destroyed communities. So it’s all relative. I’m sure we all now fetishize the purity of the printed word, but I guarantee you when that printing press was invented, a bunch of monks showed up and said, “I just memorized this entire blessed book. How can you let something so impersonal… You’re just going to put this story out there?!” It’s all relative. And it’s changed everything.

In Valley, you play a man who was driven by purpose. Steve Zahn plays a con artist driven merely by greed, who lies about basically everything.

Certainly there are reflections of that today, all around us. It really does disturb me how far you can get. It’s difficult for people to understand when people are lying that brazenly. It’s bizarre that it works, but it does.

You’ve starred in several socially vital, even game-changing shows and movies like Get Out, The Handmaid’s Tale and The West Wing. Was that a conscious choice?

I always think back to when I worked on a Clint Eastwood movie [A Perfect World, 1993]. He’d just won an Oscar for Unforgiven. There was an article in The New York Times about Clint Eastwood’s “vision of America.” I went over to him and I said, “Hey, did you see this?” He said, “Vision of America? Ten years ago I was working with an orangutan [in Every Which Way but Loose], and now they think I’m Gandhi.”

This is all to say: being an actor is a desperately insecure situation, even if you’re lucky. I am really grateful that I’ve been able to work on shows and movies that have something to say. It’s been an incredible joy to me to have been in these creative situations, which become a part of the cultural discussion. Most of that, though, is just an extreme case of good luck.

Valley of the Boom blends real-life interviews and scripted storylines with some innovative flourishes.

It’s crazy business! I was like, Well, this is going to be fun. You’re in the middle of a scene, staring down the barrel of a camera, talking straight to the audience. I think it’s an amazing way to tell the story. It’s very liberating as a performer. It’s very playful.

What is your favorite piece of technology?

It’s got to be my iPhone. I live on it. It’s incredible. I can be waiting for my kid outside school and do research—I can see a video of James Barksdale and say, “OK, I know how to play this guy!” I mean, it’s a miracle!

When you were getting your start, what actors did you look up to the most?

The pinnacle to me is Alan Arkin. He’s a huge inspiration. And Gene Hackman—nobody’s better. Why isn’t he [still] acting? I don’t understand. And I remember feeling particularly inspired walking out of Dog Day Afternoon and thinking [about Al Pacino], Oh my God, what a performance. So, the usual suspects.

What were your Sundays like growing up?

My family was Quaker. We would go to a Quaker meeting, and what they call First Day School, which is kind of where I got interested in politics. It was all about public service. And then the regular stuff: raking leaves and watching football. I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and I would sell Cokes at football games—but that was Saturday, not Sunday.

What’s a perfect Sunday today?

A lot of rest, a lot of kids, a lot of dogs—and knowing that you’re going to have an easy Monday that you don’t have to prepare for [laughs].

And unplugging?

Yeah, and I find that more and more important as we remain permanently attached to our digital obligations. We’re just in contact, too much, with everybody and everything. So the idea of doing less on Sunday starts to appeal to me. Although I’m not very good at that. It’s so hard. That’s what Valley of the Boom is about. It’s the origin story of the thing that has gone into your brain and rearranged your neurons. It’s a huge change—huge.

WHITFORD 411

New Year’s Resolutions

“I want to make sure I write at least a thousand words a day, and read a book a week. That’s unplugging.”

Favorite winter snack

“I’m from Wisconsin. Fried cheese curds. Yeah, man. ”

Best movie he saw in 2018

“Free Solo was absolutely one of the best. I thought it was amazing. I love Won’t You Be My Neighbor? too. It’s a tie: those two.”

Pets

“Izzy, a Chihuahua mutt. Otis, a Boxer mutt. And Elton is a rescue cat. They’re all rescues.”

Favorite quote

“Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” —George Burns

The mistaken identity that made him laugh

“I was having dinner with my soon-to-be mother-in-law. She said to me, “That pin on your jacket? Is that [West Wing star] Josh Malina?” And I got to say, “No, that is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

A movie he can watch over and over

Midnight Run

Perfect Sunday meal

Brunch

Who he wants to collaborate with

Alan Arkin

Favorite city in the world

“I really love Madison, Wisconsin, where I grew up.”

Last TV show he binged

“The new series of Narcos, which I highly recommend. And now I’m watching The Staircase, the documentary about the murder.”

AMG/Parade Digital

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